Rogers State University has announced it received a $300,000 grant from the Oliver Dewey Mayor Foundation to help fund the expansion of its Pryor campus.
The University of Oklahoma Board of Regents, the governing board for RSU, approved the grant at its meeting on Monday in Ardmore.
“This grant will help fund the construction necessary to expand the Pryor campus and improve the educational opportunities available to Mayes County residents. We are grateful to the Mayor Foundation for its continued support of higher education,” said RSU President Joe Wiley.
The grant will be part of the more than $1.3 million expansion of the RSU Pryor campus located at 421 S. Elliott. The expansion will more than double the size of the campus and include a much-needed student commons area, classroom space, additional faculty offices and parking, Wiley said.
The expansion will allow the RSU Pryor campus to serve additional students and meet the growing educational needs of Mayes County, said Sherry Alexander, RSU Pryor campus director.
In addition to the Mayor Foundation grant, the expansion will be funded through a combination of funds from a state higher education bond issue and private contributions.
Previously, the Oliver Dewey Mayor Foundation provided a gift to the RSU Foundation to establish the Oliver Dewey Mayor Endowed Faculty Chair at the Pryor. In addition, the foundation has provided many other gifts for previous projects at the Pryor campus.
O.D. “Jock” Mayor was a rancher, businessman, entrepreneur and longtime resident of Mayes County. One of 12 children in the Mayor family, he was a 1917 graduate of Pryor High School and played on the school’s first football team. He was a mail carrier for 20 years, owned several thousand acres of land in Mayes County, became involved in several businesses, and owned and operated several parts stores in Pryor and other communities for more than 50 years. His thriftiness and shrewd business dealings helped him amass a personal worth of more than $9 million at the time of his death in 1985.
The foundation operates exclusively for public, charitable, scientific, literary or educational purposes in Mayes County and in Grayson County, Texas, where Mayor also lived during his lifetime and had business interests.
RSU is the only four-year university serving the Pryor and Mayes County area and more than 350 students were enrolled this spring at the RSU Pryor campus. For more information about RSU’s Pryor campus, call (918) 825-6117.
More information about helping to support the expansion of the Pryor campus is available by calling the RSU Foundation at (918) 343-7773